On Shamanism
Monica King
January 16, 2006
For a number of years now I have had a passionate interest in exploring the calling of the shaman, or the medicine man or woman as this particular role has sometimes been called within the context of American culture.
A shaman is an individual who, through an often long & painful series of initiative & experiential journeys, arises within the context of his or her native village, home or town to become a powerful healer; not only of the illnesses (s)he suffers along the path of initiation, but as one who later can heal these same illnesses within the context of the village, tribe, or community.
These functions in the modern, Western-trained mind are an integration of the functions we have split in our formal academic learning centers of higher education, but which form a seamless whole in the function of the healer.
Where traditional Western medicine splits apart the approach to the body by training "specialists", eg. the podiatrist for the feet, the pulmonologist for the lungs, the psychiatrist or neurologist for the head, the shaman works instead energetically with the electrical system & the SOUL encased in the fleshly temple of the soul; the body, by opening up channels for electrical "stuff" which Spirit or the Breath or Life force that lives within the body human IS to move more freely, thereby healing many aches & pains that become grounded & "stuck" within that fleshly temple, thus becoming stagnant or congealed & leading to dis-ease or lack of ease.
A shaman is not a religionist, a psychic, a witch, warlock, or idolator of any sort.
Instead, the shaman is usually well known within his or her tribe as a wise elder. Having gained this hard earned wisdom over, many, many years of tending to the flock; the people of the community.
The shaman is a metaphysician. A soul traveler. And can lead the way in the journey of enlightenment for those who are seeking it.
Some of the most well known modern day shamans are now working world-wide interactively on the web. For some of them & their programs of initiation & further specific trainings you may look up the famous anthropologist Michael Harner, or Lynn Andrews, a man & woman in our present era who have written extensively on the subject.
Many have asked over time whether shamanism is in any way antagonistic to Christianity. My own opinion & experiences would state that the answer is a resounding No.
In fact, some of the Western researchers of this unique & distinct calling have arisen from the Jesuits in the Catholic church as one example.
The shaman however, with time, combines the functions of what our Western mind would call babysitting, or tending the village's small children & animals with basic care taking functions & first aid, in a progressive apprenticeship over many, many years which leads to increasingly complex responsibilities & experiences until ultimately the shaman is capable of combining the functions of mayor, mediator in small claims court, doctor, nurse, midwife, musician, & in the final & most severe tests of initiation exorcist of evil spirits & other shadowy or subconscious forces that often hinder both the individual & the body collective of a community in gaining or regaining full health in all senses of the word; personally, economically & transpersonally.
The shaman is a high priest or priestess by developing the EXPERENTIAL capacity to travel beyond the body, in the soul; from what we term "middle earth" or what most of us consider ordinary every day existence when up & waking & walking around in our usual routines & jobs & careers, to the infinite realms of Spirit, both the places of blinding light & terrible, horrifying darkness. Those who have experienced near death experiences often come back to living here with such expanded capabilities.
One way to describe these expanded capabilities is to visual in the mind's eye the symbol which arises in Eastern mysticism of the Yin/Yang symbol. The WHOLE being depicted as a circle within which is fifty percent white & fifty percent black, separated by a wavy line.
The shaman knows that it is possible to dive in & out & round about the wavy line that separates the two; the white & the black at will.
And will do so CONSCIOUSLY, fully aware & with intent to help a person to gain balance of the complete whole person; body/mind/& spirit.
The shaman also will not buy into the "sickness" as it is presented on the physical plane, but will use the clues the physical symptoms manifest & the person seeking treatment is presenting to detect what is going on at the soul's, or essence of the individual's experience.
Shamans do not seek clientele either, as traditional therapists in our culture do. They do not need to advertise.
The expression "when the student is ready the teacher appears" is the sentence that describes the way a soul healer comes to an individual & visa versa.
Yet the shaman does require some form of energetic exchange. The shaman will expect some sort of renumeration in the form of a gift or monetary exchange. Not because he or she NEEDS it, but because it is the way the client brings to conscious awareness a willingness to "invest" in the healing. It is a faith offering. Engaging the dis-eased one's voluntary will in the healing. Without which nothing can be done. The suffering or dis-eased one needs to have a willingness, an opening in the mind consciously in order for healing to take place.
At the community level the shaman is often a dancer, an actor or actress, comedian, writer, or other talented performing artist such as musician, drummer or the like. This is because the work of healing always involves an electrical "heating up" of the body electric & a raising of the vibratory frequencies within the body/temple to cast of the blockages, the weight, the dead & toxic wastes that have accumulated in it to free the individual & the community of the stagnant dead hubris that keeps them stuck.
Another simple way to look at it is to examine how butter functions. When it is cold it is hard. When it is warmed it melts. So it is with lard or fat or dead weight & dead cells & tissues within the body electric. Unless the channels of chi as it is called in Chinese medicine or ki in Ayurvedic medicine are invigorated by the individual's own hands, fingers with massage or better yet, by the hands of a friendly massage therapist or other healer, the pockets of negativity simply sit & stagnate & putrefy, eventually leading to death & decay.
Without the movement of massage or acupressure, acupuncture, or tapping these points, there will be no deep resolution of the problems, only new areas where symptoms manifest.
The techniques of drumming, repeating phrases in chants or in humming, vocalizing & other forms of musical & vibrational movement stimulate chi or spirit to move. And like the streams frozen in winter, as the spring comes & the heat melts the ice, the flow increases. As does the light, & the energy to sprout new life, new cells, new thoughts, inspirations & ways to move out of problems which the individual or society may have procrastinated or argued about for years, even centuries.
"Things that remember themselves are not forgotten, but rise on wings of experience & paint our minds with visions of our ancestors. Things that remember themselves are pictures without form & words without a tongue. They give meaning to what we thought we had forgotten in our youth. Things that remember themselves give light to the uncertain paths we used to take, bringing beauty to the house of our ripening old age." Nancy Wood
One Christian example of shamanism I would like to offer is the testimony of Paul the "least of the apostle" as he called himself. For many years Paul had persecuted the early church & saints until he was stopped dead in his tracks by an angel & a donkey. Paul wrote in the Book of Acts about experiences where he was "caught up to heaven" whether in or out of his body he could not tell. An early written testimony of an astral traveling journey; or out of body experience.
Which points out another aspect of the initiation of a shaman in times past. The calling of the shaman was not one a person necessarily consciously prepared for or looked to. It was often a calling which was rather awakened in the soul through a mysterious timing of something perhaps locked in the person's blood lines or lineage passed through generations within that individuals's particular inheritance at the DNA or subatomic etheric unique imprint of their soul's signature. Shamans were passed the calling from father to son or mother to daughter with the guidance "beyond the veil" of guardian spirits & ancestors in the larger cosmos.
They also are people who arise from EVERY indigenous culture world wide & are all earth-based spiritualists, who work intently with full conscious awareness with the basic elements of earthly existence; air, fire, water, earth, & metal.
Which is why they, as they become ever more masterful of these expanded capacities, can effect the fertility of crops & the winds, rains & temperature of specific locations where they do the healings & dances to bring their part of the earth back into harmony & greater balance. They are the Great Mother Earth's midwives & guard her health with their own unique blend of medicine, music, masterful story telling, humor, & courageous journeys into the depths of darkness & exhilarating flights to the warmth of the light of the sun.
Oh & humor. Did I mention humor? They can trick & joke an individual out of a stagnant, overly responsible, sad or humorless existence. So next time you tell a good joke or weave a fascinating tale, you may just be on the path of becoming a healer in your own circle of influence too.
Keep on keeping on, for when the student is ready, the teacher will appear; in a flash of insight, in a dream or in your workplace or home or classroom. Or on the television or movie screen or speaking or singing to you from the heavens in the sound of birdsong, the bark of your dog, or the music in your ipod, mp3 player or radio.
For the shaman there is no separation. We ARE all one, in reality. It is our own confused separated fragments of "reality" which are the illusion; that have obscured this truth.
A shaman is an individual who, through an often long & painful series of initiative & experiential journeys, arises within the context of his or her native village, home or town to become a powerful healer; not only of the illnesses (s)he suffers along the path of initiation, but as one who later can heal these same illnesses within the context of the village, tribe, or community.
These functions in the modern, Western-trained mind are an integration of the functions we have split in our formal academic learning centers of higher education, but which form a seamless whole in the function of the healer.
Where traditional Western medicine splits apart the approach to the body by training "specialists", eg. the podiatrist for the feet, the pulmonologist for the lungs, the psychiatrist or neurologist for the head, the shaman works instead energetically with the electrical system & the SOUL encased in the fleshly temple of the soul; the body, by opening up channels for electrical "stuff" which Spirit or the Breath or Life force that lives within the body human IS to move more freely, thereby healing many aches & pains that become grounded & "stuck" within that fleshly temple, thus becoming stagnant or congealed & leading to dis-ease or lack of ease.
A shaman is not a religionist, a psychic, a witch, warlock, or idolator of any sort.
Instead, the shaman is usually well known within his or her tribe as a wise elder. Having gained this hard earned wisdom over, many, many years of tending to the flock; the people of the community.
The shaman is a metaphysician. A soul traveler. And can lead the way in the journey of enlightenment for those who are seeking it.
Some of the most well known modern day shamans are now working world-wide interactively on the web. For some of them & their programs of initiation & further specific trainings you may look up the famous anthropologist Michael Harner, or Lynn Andrews, a man & woman in our present era who have written extensively on the subject.
Many have asked over time whether shamanism is in any way antagonistic to Christianity. My own opinion & experiences would state that the answer is a resounding No.
In fact, some of the Western researchers of this unique & distinct calling have arisen from the Jesuits in the Catholic church as one example.
The shaman however, with time, combines the functions of what our Western mind would call babysitting, or tending the village's small children & animals with basic care taking functions & first aid, in a progressive apprenticeship over many, many years which leads to increasingly complex responsibilities & experiences until ultimately the shaman is capable of combining the functions of mayor, mediator in small claims court, doctor, nurse, midwife, musician, & in the final & most severe tests of initiation exorcist of evil spirits & other shadowy or subconscious forces that often hinder both the individual & the body collective of a community in gaining or regaining full health in all senses of the word; personally, economically & transpersonally.
The shaman is a high priest or priestess by developing the EXPERENTIAL capacity to travel beyond the body, in the soul; from what we term "middle earth" or what most of us consider ordinary every day existence when up & waking & walking around in our usual routines & jobs & careers, to the infinite realms of Spirit, both the places of blinding light & terrible, horrifying darkness. Those who have experienced near death experiences often come back to living here with such expanded capabilities.
One way to describe these expanded capabilities is to visual in the mind's eye the symbol which arises in Eastern mysticism of the Yin/Yang symbol. The WHOLE being depicted as a circle within which is fifty percent white & fifty percent black, separated by a wavy line.
The shaman knows that it is possible to dive in & out & round about the wavy line that separates the two; the white & the black at will.
And will do so CONSCIOUSLY, fully aware & with intent to help a person to gain balance of the complete whole person; body/mind/& spirit.
The shaman also will not buy into the "sickness" as it is presented on the physical plane, but will use the clues the physical symptoms manifest & the person seeking treatment is presenting to detect what is going on at the soul's, or essence of the individual's experience.
Shamans do not seek clientele either, as traditional therapists in our culture do. They do not need to advertise.
The expression "when the student is ready the teacher appears" is the sentence that describes the way a soul healer comes to an individual & visa versa.
Yet the shaman does require some form of energetic exchange. The shaman will expect some sort of renumeration in the form of a gift or monetary exchange. Not because he or she NEEDS it, but because it is the way the client brings to conscious awareness a willingness to "invest" in the healing. It is a faith offering. Engaging the dis-eased one's voluntary will in the healing. Without which nothing can be done. The suffering or dis-eased one needs to have a willingness, an opening in the mind consciously in order for healing to take place.
At the community level the shaman is often a dancer, an actor or actress, comedian, writer, or other talented performing artist such as musician, drummer or the like. This is because the work of healing always involves an electrical "heating up" of the body electric & a raising of the vibratory frequencies within the body/temple to cast of the blockages, the weight, the dead & toxic wastes that have accumulated in it to free the individual & the community of the stagnant dead hubris that keeps them stuck.
Another simple way to look at it is to examine how butter functions. When it is cold it is hard. When it is warmed it melts. So it is with lard or fat or dead weight & dead cells & tissues within the body electric. Unless the channels of chi as it is called in Chinese medicine or ki in Ayurvedic medicine are invigorated by the individual's own hands, fingers with massage or better yet, by the hands of a friendly massage therapist or other healer, the pockets of negativity simply sit & stagnate & putrefy, eventually leading to death & decay.
Without the movement of massage or acupressure, acupuncture, or tapping these points, there will be no deep resolution of the problems, only new areas where symptoms manifest.
The techniques of drumming, repeating phrases in chants or in humming, vocalizing & other forms of musical & vibrational movement stimulate chi or spirit to move. And like the streams frozen in winter, as the spring comes & the heat melts the ice, the flow increases. As does the light, & the energy to sprout new life, new cells, new thoughts, inspirations & ways to move out of problems which the individual or society may have procrastinated or argued about for years, even centuries.
"Things that remember themselves are not forgotten, but rise on wings of experience & paint our minds with visions of our ancestors. Things that remember themselves are pictures without form & words without a tongue. They give meaning to what we thought we had forgotten in our youth. Things that remember themselves give light to the uncertain paths we used to take, bringing beauty to the house of our ripening old age." Nancy Wood
One Christian example of shamanism I would like to offer is the testimony of Paul the "least of the apostle" as he called himself. For many years Paul had persecuted the early church & saints until he was stopped dead in his tracks by an angel & a donkey. Paul wrote in the Book of Acts about experiences where he was "caught up to heaven" whether in or out of his body he could not tell. An early written testimony of an astral traveling journey; or out of body experience.
Which points out another aspect of the initiation of a shaman in times past. The calling of the shaman was not one a person necessarily consciously prepared for or looked to. It was often a calling which was rather awakened in the soul through a mysterious timing of something perhaps locked in the person's blood lines or lineage passed through generations within that individuals's particular inheritance at the DNA or subatomic etheric unique imprint of their soul's signature. Shamans were passed the calling from father to son or mother to daughter with the guidance "beyond the veil" of guardian spirits & ancestors in the larger cosmos.
They also are people who arise from EVERY indigenous culture world wide & are all earth-based spiritualists, who work intently with full conscious awareness with the basic elements of earthly existence; air, fire, water, earth, & metal.
Which is why they, as they become ever more masterful of these expanded capacities, can effect the fertility of crops & the winds, rains & temperature of specific locations where they do the healings & dances to bring their part of the earth back into harmony & greater balance. They are the Great Mother Earth's midwives & guard her health with their own unique blend of medicine, music, masterful story telling, humor, & courageous journeys into the depths of darkness & exhilarating flights to the warmth of the light of the sun.
Oh & humor. Did I mention humor? They can trick & joke an individual out of a stagnant, overly responsible, sad or humorless existence. So next time you tell a good joke or weave a fascinating tale, you may just be on the path of becoming a healer in your own circle of influence too.
Keep on keeping on, for when the student is ready, the teacher will appear; in a flash of insight, in a dream or in your workplace or home or classroom. Or on the television or movie screen or speaking or singing to you from the heavens in the sound of birdsong, the bark of your dog, or the music in your ipod, mp3 player or radio.
For the shaman there is no separation. We ARE all one, in reality. It is our own confused separated fragments of "reality" which are the illusion; that have obscured this truth.
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